Local
campaigners had a rather damp time in Yorkshire Street on Saturday
morning (6 February 2016), but remained keen to encourage people to
attend the STOP TRIDENT public meeting to be held at 7.30pm on Tuesday 9
February 2016. The meeting has been called by Rochdale and
Littleborough Peace Group, Rochdale Green Party and Momentum Rochdale,
Heywood and Middleton and will be addressed by Natalie
Bennett, leader of the Green Party. The meeting will be chaired by Revd.
Mark Coleman, Vicar
of Rochdale.
Philip
Gilligan from the Peace Group said:
“Trident
weapons of mass destruction are increasingly in the news and we are keen to let
people know why we want them scrapped. Parliament is likely to vote on the
issue of so-called ‘Trident renewal’ within the next few months. The Labour
Party is reviewing its position. The Campaign for Nuclear Disarmament (CND)
supported by a wide range of other organisations, including Greenpeace, Pax
Christi and the Moslem Association of Britain has called a national
demonstration on Saturday 27 February 2016. And the chair of the Commons
Defence Committee, Conservative MP Crispin Blunt, has estimated that the total
cost of the proposed renewed Trident system would be as much as £167billlion. Many
of us are already convinced that the existing Trident system needs to be
scrapped and that plans for its so-called ‘renewal’ must be stopped. We are keen
to explain our views to others and hope that many people will join us and
Natalie at 7.30pm at St Chad’s on 9 February 2016.”
